PM chairs a high level meeting on Covid and vaccination related situation

New Delhi, May 15: PM chaired a high-level meeting to discuss the Covid and vaccination related situation in the country. Officials briefed the PM on the current Covid related situation in the country. PM was briefed that testing has gone up rapidly in the country, from around 50 lakh tests per week in early March to around 1.3 crore tests per week now. They also informed the PM about the gradually decreasing test positivity rate and increasing recovery rate. It was discussed that cases which had gone over 4 lakh cases per day are now coming down as a result of the efforts by healthcare workers, state governments and central government. Officials gave a detailed presentation on the state & district level situation of Covid, testing, oxygen availability, healthcare infrastructure, vaccination roadmap.  PM said that localised containment strategies are the need of the hour specially for states where TPR in districts is high. The Prime Minister instructed that testing needs to be scaled up further, with use of both RT PCR and Rapid Tests, especially in areas with high test positivity rates. PM said that states should be encouraged to report their numbers transparently without any pressure of high numbers showing adversely on their efforts. PM asked for augmentation of healthcare resources in rural areas to focus on door to door testing & surveillance. He also spoke about empowering ASHA & Anganwadi workers with all necessary tools. PM asked for guidelines to be made available in easy language along with illustrations for home isolation and treatment in rural areas. The Prime Minister directed that a distribution plan for ensuring oxygen supply in rural areas should be worked out, including through provision of Oxygen Concentrators. The Prime Minister added that necessary training should be provided to health workers in the operation of such equipment, and power supply should be ensured for smooth operation of such medical devices. The Prime Minister took serious note of some reports about ventilators lying unutilized in storage in some states and directed that an immediate audit of installation and operation of ventilators provided by the Central Government should be carried out. The Prime Minister added that refresher training for properly operating ventilators should be provided to healthcare workers if necessary.  PM said that India’s fight against Covid has been guided throughout by scientists and subject experts and will continue being guided by them. Officials briefed PM about the vaccination process and the state-wise coverage of 45+ population. The roadmap for future vaccine availability was also discussed. He directed officials to work closely with states to ramp up the speed of vaccination.